The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

Major supermarket and fast-food restaurant chains yesterday pledged they are “100 percent ready” for single-use plastics ban that takes effect tomorrow despite the extra costs they will incur. 

Mario Cash, general manager of Restaurants Bahamas, operator of the Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) and Burger King franchises, told Tribune Business: “We are 100 percent prepared. The impact for us was on the Styrofoam.

“We use the breakfast Styrofoam clamshell for the pancakes platter, and we had to switch to a platter that is now biodegradable that can handle the pancakes and the sauce etc... The actual cost increase on that platter alone was 68 cents to go to a biodegradable one.”

He added: “If you think about any vendors that are using the regular Styrofoam lunch clamshell, they went to the paper thing and it doesn’t quite work for putting scrambled eggs and pancakes on one platter.

“So what we had to do is go to a high-grade biodegradable plastic thing that gives us a better-looking image. We didn’t even have that option of going paper. Then we had the straws and coffee cups with the lids. We don’t have any bags that were plastic; we already used paper.” 

Mr Cash said the increased costs involved in complying with the ban had created some challenges, explaining: “I’m absorbing that cost, which is insane. How do I pass this on? How do I pass this on to the consumer?

“All of this cost increase is surrounding breakfast heavily because you have the breakfast platter now, the coffee cup and also the coffee stirrer. So it’s a lot of cost for breakfast items we had to absorb. 

“The actual cost per month on this packaging is $1,000 per store, so I am looking at a $6,000 increase per month for this. So it is heavy. Let’s not forget we have the knife, fork and spoon that are also going, along with this same breakfast platter, which is now biodegradable also. But we have already started to transition,” he continued.

“All of our inventory is in, and we have started to phase out, for example, a couple of sizes of the coffee cups and we have already moved to new ones. We have already transitioned to the breakfast platters, so as the old inventory phases out we already have the new inventory already sitting there waiting to transition over to.

“I don’t know how the other folks are absorbing these costs. Did the Government really think this through?,” Mr Cash asked. “I mean this is truly a real cost for this breakfast platter; this is the coffee cup, the platter, the knife and the fork. That is real cost.

“For any vendor on the side of the road or anywhere, that new paper clamshell they are using, that is a new cost on a biodegradable knife and fork in the morning. So for them that is at least a 25 cent cost increase. I don’t know what that clamshell is going to cost, but that knife and fork is going to get up there.”

However, Rupert Roberts, Super Value’s principal, told Tribune Business: “We are ready and prepared, and we think it’s going to go well.” 

Responding to concerns that the switch from single-use plastic bags to more environmentally-friendly ones will drive up grocery costs, Mr Roberts said: “I don’t know. If a customer spends $200 and it gets in one bag, it will be 25 cents, and if it gets in two bags it will be 50 cents.

“So I don’t think it’s going to be a biggie. I really think in six months, when the plastics are out of the way, we’ll be using compostable and we should go back to free bags, unless government wants to do something on that.

“We do have compostable bags coming in in May; that’s the earliest we can get them, but we do have six months to get rid of plastics and we should be able to go back to free. But it’s hardly a percentage on the grocery shopping. We won’t be able to get compostable bags until May or June, so our customers will be spending 25 cents per bag up until May or June. When we were aware of what we had to do we ordered, and that’s when we expect them to come in,” added Mr Roberts.

“We are very late and should have acted earlier, and then checking yesterday, only 89 states in the US are banning so far. I checked with Canada yesterday, and they are charging for a plastic bag but they say that for five years people have been bringing down tote-bags to pack groceries.” 

Mr Roberts said the cost of switching from plastic bags to environmentally-friendly options was about “a third or 50 percent more. I believe in my mind it’s about from $50 to $70 per 2,000.” 

He added: “I thought five years ago that scientists said they would accept biodegradable. I thought five years ago biodegradable would be accepted and we switched to biodegradable and, of course, you take them in your workshop or you put something in them and you hang them up, and in six months they are in half-inch pieces. But now the compostables would disintegrate into powder. 

“One of the things that our generation has been used to, and fortunately the youth are being taught, and I think they think a lot different from us; they would never discard a plastic bag or throw a piece of plastic into the ocean. I think the crowd coming up behind us, if we don’t save the world they will, and that is very encouraging.

“They are more thoughtful than us and are going to do better than us. That helps the situation. It just seems that everybody is on board, and you hear a lot of fun and jokes and a lot of negativity, but the people with the fun and jokes and negativity, they are on board and they know we have to go in this direction/”